Sunday, June 24, 2012

If you go this route, it's important know everything there is to know about your funding situation, including the way banks look at it and its tax treatment (which can vary depending on the sort of funding you've got, its purpose, and its source).

5 comments:

Hi Dan! I just came across your blog-I've heard of it but never came before. Its pretty good I like how much you post.

sorry to be off topic but I see somewhere you asked about people with blogs:

I have a blog that touches often on economic and monetary issues though I admit I'm not a professional I am an interested-and I'd like to think interesting-amateur. I wrote a piece today about something I wonder about-how much credit or lack thereof do Governors take for a high or low employment rate?

One the major boons about studying for a PhD in Scandinavia is the funding... and your status as an employee, which circumvents some of the problematic issues that your brother mentions.

Since we're on topic, I might as well mention for any interested parties that the standard PhD salary in Norway is the equivalent of $65k per annum at current exchange rates. (The idea is to make the PhD salary competitive with what a Master's graduate would expect to earn in the private sector.) Living expenses are undeniably higher than most parts of the world, but you certainly live very comfortably on that. Indeed, you can put a good chunk of your net salary away every month... Including a special (low tax) savings programme designed for prospective first-time home buyers. Rather generously, these benefits extend to housing you buy anywhere in the world.

Perhaps some food for thought for anyone thinking of doing a PhD outside of the US... (I know that it certainly was influential in my final decision.)